Dutch-born Sarawak content creator’s latest Gawai number inspired by German drinking song

KUCHING (May 11): Kuching-based Dutch-born content creator Nick Jansen has released another Gawai-themed song ‘Nyamai Nyamai’ to bring joy to celebrants celebrating the harvest festival this year.

At the time of writing, his music video, released on YouTube last Friday (May 3), has garnered 163,000 views, and 7,500 likes.

Nick, known by his online name ‘Global Gibbon‘, said his latest Gawai song was inspired by an old German drinking song: ‘Im Himmel Gibt’s Kein Bier’ (In Heaven There Is No Beer), with a Sarawakian twist as traditional instruments such as the taboh, sape and engkerumong can be heard in the song.

“My first song ‘Anang Malu’ (Don’t Be Shy) tells about my life story – about my first time going here into the jungle (in Sarawak) and about how I met my wife and how I’m still here and doing the things I do here today.

“Then the second one ‘Nyamai Nyamai’ is actually inspired by a song called In Heaven There Is No Beer – it’s an old German drinking song. And as Sarawakians here love our beer, so I thought – why don’t I remake that song? We need an Iban version of it.

“So I came up with my own lyrics, just kind of had the idea of that song. And that’s how I started working on it,” he told The Borneo Post.

In the music video, it tells the story about how a person would celebrate and enjoy himself by drinking beer – be it after a busy working week, having barbecue with friends and family or going through a heartbreak.

Nick said the song is about enjoying and having fun with friends and family – much like the German festival Oktoberfest.

“By having good time with friends, whatever situation you’re in; if you’re sad, your friends will always be there to take care of you.

“You know when you work hard, you don’t have so much fun at work maybe the whole week, but in the end, it’s the weekend you can enjoy with friends and family,” he added.

When asked whether his latest Gawai song can succeed Anang Malu, he said both songs should go along together; however he also expressed hope that Nyamai Nyamai can achieve the same level as Anang Malu.

“I think Anang Malu would still be the stronger one because the chorus is so catchy, but Nyamai Nyamai can be a fun song, maybe it could go further.

“With this new song I tried to just have fun with it,” he added.

In terms of production, Nick revealed that the idea came to him some time in November last year and began writing the lyrics, and also incorporated traditional musical instruments as he wanted to make the song Sarawakian.

In March this year, the song was recorded and then another three weeks were spent to shoot the music video.

Some notable locations for the shooting include Damai Beach and Carpenter Street.

“By the end of April everything was ready and the song was published,” he said.